Totally understand this is not medical advice. :) And yes, I've been buried in data, along with my own research. I like to know EVERYTHING, so my question was really out of curiosity, rather than concern for myself. The pathology of my tumor was done by two pathologists, one at the university hospital here (and they are VERY well respected) and one at the hospital where it was removed. Thanks for the info. :)

And yeah, I'm on a standard RCHOP protocol, half way through. One of the oncologists I saw (at the university) told me to be more afraid of being hit by a bus than dying of this. Then my first day of chemo I meet a nice guy who drives the a city bus also starting treatment for NHL. The prophecy has been laid, this nice old guy is gonna hit me with a bus some day.

spr:I only took Rituxan, against medical advice. Plus my other protocols: Hash Oil, Turmeric, DiChloroAcetate. Result: 1 month to resolution of all tumors except the big one. 4 months to all clear. 6 months later: weight back to fully normal, no chemo side effects, i'm back to 100% in all respects.

It may be quackery. May be sheer luck. I don't give a rat's ass, it works for thousands of people just like me.

Whatever works is great, as far as I'm concerned. If given the choice between rituxan and nothing, I'd take the rituxan. If given the choice of rituxan alone or rituxan plus hash oil, I'd take the hash oil cause things would at least be a lot more mellow during treatment...

God-is-a-Taco:RedPhoenix122: Gig103: kronicfeld: This proves that God has a plan. He had to give the wife cancer so that the husband could find his own. Without God's intervention, this man would have died. Praise and glory be.

I know you're being sarcastic, but it's the sort of comment that I would see on my Facebook NewsFeed with "18 shares" and "35 likes".

In the form of a jpg with white text on a black background and something about "share in the next 15 mins or you will get cancer."

Both me and my ex (who I am very close too still) found out we have cancer in the past five months. She found out she has stage II breast cancer in May, I found out I have stage II non-hodgkin's lymphoma in July. We're both going through chemotherapy, surgery, etc and doing our best to support each other.

Jesus, move back in with other. If there is a better reason I don't know it.

halotosis:Dylan and Eric:What was your specific diagnosis, if you don't mind sharing? That fact that you got rituximab alone suggests that it was a more indolent variety...

/Seriously interested.//Pathologist///Best wishes to everyone for a durable recovery

Oh? A pathologist? Cool. I have a question for you, something that I've wanted to ask a pathologist for the past couple of weeks. I was diagnosed with large cell, b-type, aggressive NHL after they did exploratory surgery and came out with the primary mass. There is no evidence of secondary tumors and my bone marrow is normal.... so I'm in really good shape. How hard is it to differentiate between a non-aggressive and an aggressive type (or for that matter, any type)?

The main division for Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma is into "germinal center" and "activated b-cell" phenotypes. If your oncologist and hematopathologist were any good they've already figured this out and told you about it, but you don't remember because they've buried you in details since your diagnosis :)

If you have a copy of your pathology report, check to see if your tumor was positive for CD10, and/or BCL-6, and/or negative for MUM-1 by immunohistochemistry. CD10+ or BCL-6+ or MUM-1- means germinal center type (more responsive to treatment) and the opposite means activated b-cell type (less responsive). There are additional mutations they can look for that are independently associated with prognosis, which they also should have already looked for by FISH or molecular methods.

If you got the tumor mass by surgery and your marrow is clear, that's really good news! They may want to treat with something like R-CHOP or R-Bendamustine (as previously mentioned by spr) for a while and then followup with a PET scan in 3-6-12 months to see if any positive lymph nodes pop-up eventually, which might not ever happen. I'm not intimately familiar with the stats after treatment to no evidence of disease, but I wouldn't be surprised if the prognosis is *very good* :-)

of those, I only took Rituxan, against medical advice. Plus my other protocols: Hash Oil, Turmeric, DiChloroAcetate. Result: 1 month to resolution of all tumors except the big one. 4 months to all clear. 6 months later: weight back to fully normal, no chemo side effects, i'm back to 100% in all respects.

It may be quackery. May be sheer luck. I don't give a rat's ass, it works for thousands of people just like me.

Dylan and Eric:What was your specific diagnosis, if you don't mind sharing? That fact that you got rituximab alone suggests that it was a more indolent variety...

/Seriously interested.//Pathologist///Best wishes to everyone for a durable recovery

Oh? A pathologist? Cool. I have a question for you, something that I've wanted to ask a pathologist for the past couple of weeks. I was diagnosed with large cell, b-type, aggressive NHL after they did exploratory surgery and came out with the primary mass. There is no evidence of secondary tumors and my bone marrow is normal.... so I'm in really good shape. How hard is it to differentiate between a non-aggressive and an aggressive type (or for that matter, any type)?

spr:Nope -- worked like a champ for me. Went from Stage III NHL to completely clean, No Evidence of Disease in 4 months.I took Rituximab (still on maintenance doses), Hash Oil, DiChloroAcetate, and a few other things. No chemo, no tumors, no worries.

Funny strange how that actually makes people angry, instead of happy. How dare he? :)

Not to rain on your wedding day or anything, but you do realize that rituximab is specifically designed to kill non-Hodgkin lymphoma, right? And that the aforementioned studies on cannabinoids while curious, are experimental in vitro cell culture-type things?

What was your specific diagnosis, if you don't mind sharing? That fact that you got rituximab alone suggests that it was a more indolent variety...

/Seriously interested.//Pathologist///Best wishes to everyone for a durable recovery

Morgellons:spr: Nope -- worked like a champ for me. Went from Stage III NHL to completely clean, No Evidence of Disease in 4 months.I took Rituximab (still on maintenance doses), Hash Oil, DiChloroAcetate, and a few other things. No chemo, no tumors, no worries.

Funny strange how that actually makes people angry, instead of happy. How dare he? :)

You're right, it couldn't have been the Rituxan, that would be crazy that a drug specifically designed to treat lymphoma would, you know, treat lymphoma...

/Can't tell if trolling or just retarded

No kidding. Rituximab is what cured him, not hash oil. If hash oil was the cure, I would never have gotten NHL in the first place. Rituximab is a mouse antibody that targets the CQ20 receptor on certain types of lymphoma cells (aggressive, b-type). It's pretty amazing stuff, it also helped put a very good friend of mines MS into remission.

Right now I'm getting rituximab once every three weeks along with a few other drugs. The other drugs are the ones that scare me, but better safe than sorry.

spr:Nope -- worked like a champ for me. Went from Stage III NHL to completely clean, No Evidence of Disease in 4 months.I took Rituximab (still on maintenance doses), Hash Oil, DiChloroAcetate, and a few other things. No chemo, no tumors, no worries.

Funny strange how that actually makes people angry, instead of happy. How dare he? :)

You're right, it couldn't have been the Rituxan, that would be crazy that a drug specifically designed to treat lymphoma would, you know, treat lymphoma...

This EXACT thing (well, Stage II melanoma, but...) happened to my cousin about three years ago. His wife was undergoing chemo for breast cancer so he shaved his head as a show of support. Next day, one of his co-workers said, "Hey, what the hell is that thing on the back of your head?" So he went to a dermatologist and sure as shiat, it was cancer. I guess it's more common than we thought, because we thought that was pretty ridiculous at the time.

Lexx:Uh...Stage III melanoma is NOT a great find. 25-60% 5 year survival rate?

It depends on whether its IIIA, IIIB or IIIC. IIIA has a 78% 5 year survival rate, but this is highly variable and the treatment has to be swift and aggressive. Follow-up treatments are essential. What I don't understand is that usually by stage II, melanomas begin to be easily damaged and readily bleed and become irritated. One would think he would have discovered something was wrong earlier just by combing/brushing his hair.

Just goes to show that you need a loved one to look at those nether regions you cannot see occasionally.

Both me and my ex (who I am very close too still) found out we have cancer in the past five months. She found out she has stage II breast cancer in May, I found out I have stage II non-hodgkin's lymphoma in July. We're both going through chemotherapy, surgery, etc and doing our best to support each other.